ShowMe South Africa

Henrik Stenson went from 224th in the world to third in 18 months. He tells us how he did it.

Winning the FedEx Cup earned me 10-million bucks. I’m not going to turn my nose up at that, but of more value to me was what that win represented – taking on the world’s best players over a gruelling series of events… and finishing on top.

I’m well aware of your game. Effectively, you have to win it three times over. First, you have to play consistently well for the entire season. Second, you have to compete strongly in the playoff series. Third, you have to hold off all challengers down the stretch in the fast event. That takes serious – consistency – consistency that emphatically eluded me in the early part 2012, when I saw my world ranking slip to 224.

Over the next nine pages, I will share with you the techniques and mindset I used to help me rise 221 places in just 18 months – and that have given me genuine confidence I can move up another two.

A solid base keeps my swing in ‘sync’

Since I turned pro in 1998, the foundation of my game has always been my ball striking. However, at the end of 2011, I had picked up some bad habits and got myself into a bit of a mess. With the help of my long-term coach Pete Cowen, we began working through the problems. In a nutshell, I had lost stability. When you are swinging from a poor base, you cannot load and unload your muscles correctly. You lose synchronisation between your arms and torso, and between your upper body and lower body. As a result, the whole swing becomes loose and inefficient. Unfortunately, there is no magic stardust you can sprinkle to hit the ball long and straight. Getting to grips with these issues was about hard work. But the fact I finished 2013 top of the US Tour’s greens in regulation stat validates that what we were working on was correct. Over the next few pages, I’ll explain in more detail how we fixed those problems.

1. A phrase I use at address is, “Get in and over it.”  This lets my arms hang away from my body, giving them freedom to load and unload beneath my centre as they swing down. My old sitting posture was denying my arms the space to work.

2. Good posture allows a coordinated move away from the ball – arms swing in sync with body motion. My old posture – spine too upright, arms close to my chest – would cost me that connection from the start

3. My old swing felt loose, the arms moving independently of the shoulders. Now, everything arrives at the top together. It’s a better coil that helps the backswing come to a natural stop, with the shoulders fully-loaded over a stable base.

My key move

This image shows how compact and efficient my motion has become. My shoulders have coiled past 90 degrees, yet the swing is just shy of parallel. There is no loose or wasted motion here.

4. Like all good downswings, mine begins with the tower body. I move this into position first before unloading my top half. The club cutting through my right bicep is a great sign that I am on a good plane as I begin to attack the ball.

5. Better coordination lets me use the ground better. This means my downswing has more stability. Approaching impact, my hands and arms are free to give it a rip. The speed is with the arms, but you can only apply it from a solid base.

6. A hallmark of a good follow-through is that the butt of the club points at your navel as you rotate through. It reveals good release and,good syncing of upper and lower body. Don’t  manufacture this position; use it as a checkpoint.

How I create controlled power from the tee

At first glance, hitting greens in regulation seems like it’s all about good iron play. However, don’t underestimate the importance of hitting the fairway first. It’s a whole lot easier to find the green when your ball is lying on cut grass. One reason I hit so many fairways is that I often favour my 3-wood off the tee. But there are also two areas of my swing I’ve worked on that have allowed me to hit the ball consistently long and straight. I’m sure they’ll work for you, too.

1. Starting down: ‘Grip the turf’

Your legs and feet are the only parts of your body connected with the ground, so they are a key source of power and stability. In my old swing, my upper body would race ahead in the down-swing and pull me up and out of the shot. This cost me distance and accuracy. Now, as I start down, my feeling is of grinding down into the ground with my feet. This move gives your swing that magic combination of stability and power. I won’t kid you – it takes time to groove this move. But if you put in the work, you’ll be rewarded with a powerful delivery position.

2. Time the perfect release

In my swing sequence, I talked about how I generate clubhead speed through my arms. If you want to apply maximum pressure to the ball, you have to release the club coming into impact, not exiting it. When you work your body too hard, as I was doing, you will tend to drag the butt through to the target and never release the clubhead. This is a position that can only hit weak cuts.

Practice drill

Split hands for a better release

Take your regular left-hand grip, but hold the club down on the shaft with your right. Make a back-swing: feel how the split hands encourage the right elbow to fold into your side as the club moves back. Because your right hand now has further to travel to reach its impact position, it needs to work a bit harder, and faster. Because of this, you will find yourself squaring everything up underneath yourself more naturally, and more in sync with your upper body. Make some split-hand half-swings, feeling that more aggressive right-sided release. Slowly work your way up to a full swing and your normal grip, each time repeating the sensation of the full shaft under your chest at impact.